COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Purchase Obligations

We have contractual obligations related to service arrangements with suppliers for fixed or minimum amounts. Future minimum payments at December 31, 2019 for purchase obligations were as follows (in thousands):



Years ending December 31:
2020	$	125,533
2021	89,198
2022	36,835
2023	30,843
2024	25,632
Thereafter	28,718
Total future minimum payments	$	336,759

Legal Matters

We are party to a number of claims and lawsuits incidental to our business. In our opinion, the liabilities, if any, which may ultimately result from the outcome of such matters, individually or in the aggregate, are not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial position, liquidity, results of operations or cash flows.

Six putative class action lawsuits challenging the Merger were filed. Two of these lawsuits, captioned Peters v. Total System Services, Inc. et al. (Case No. 4:19-cv-00114) and Wolf v. Total System Services, Inc., et al. (Case No. 4:19-cv-00115), were filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia on July 18, 2019. The third lawsuit, captioned Drulias v. Global Payments Inc., et. al (Case No. 60774/2019) was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester on July 19, 2019. The fourth lawsuit, captioned Hickey v. Total System Services, Inc., et al. (Civil Action No. 1:19-cv-03337-LMM) was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, on July 23, 2019. The fifth lawsuit, captioned, Cason v. Total System Services, Inc., et al. (Case No. 1:19-cv-07471) was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 9, 2019. The sixth lawsuit, captioned, Cheng v. Total System Services, et al. (Case No: 1:19-cv-01513-UNA) was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware on August 13, 2019. The complaints filed in the lawsuits assert, among other matters, claims for filing a materially incomplete registration statement with the SEC. Global Payments and TSYS released supplemental disclosures relating to the Merger in late August 2019, and the Peters lawsuit, the Wolf lawsuit and the Cheng lawsuit have been voluntarily dismissed.

On September 23, 2019, a jury in the Superior Court of Dekalb County, Georgia, awarded Frontline Processing Corp. ("Frontline") $135.2 million in damages, costs and attorney's fees (plus interest) following a trial of a breach of contract dispute between Frontline and Global Payments, wherein Frontline alleged that Global Payments violated provisions of the parties' Referral Agreement and Master Services Agreement. The Superior Court entered a final judgment on the verdict in favor of Frontline on September 30, 2019. We believe the jury verdict is in error and Frontline’s case is completely without merit, and we are appealing

the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals. While it is reasonably possible that we will incur some loss between zero and the judgment amount plus interest, we have determined that it is not probable that Global Payments has incurred a loss under the applicable accounting standard (ASC Topic 450, Loss Contingencies) as of December 31, 2019. As a result, we have not recorded a liability on the consolidated balance sheet with respect to this litigation.

Operating Taxes

We are subject to certain taxes that are not derived based on earnings (e.g., sales, gross receipts, property, value-added and other business taxes). During the course of operations, we must interpret the meaning of various operating tax regulations in the United States and in the foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. Taxing authorities in those various jurisdictions may arrive at different interpretations of applicable tax laws and regulations which could result in the payment of additional taxes in those jurisdictions.

BIN/ICA Agreements

We have entered into sponsorship or depository and processing agreements with certain banks. These agreements allow us to use the banks' identification numbers, referred to as Bank Identification Number ("BIN") for Visa transactions and an Interbank Card Association ("ICA") number for Mastercard transactions, to clear credit card transactions through Visa and Mastercard. Certain of these agreements contain financial covenants, and we were in compliance with all such covenants as of December 31, 2019.